U.s. Weighs Expelling Five Soviet Diplomats

October 21, 1986|The New York Times

WASHINGTON -- Reagan administration officials said Monday that the United States was considering the expulsion of five Soviet diplomats in retaliation for Moscow`s order for five American diplomats to leave.

Although White House and State Department officials said they hoped that the issue would not heat up, they acknowledged that the United States was determined to stand firm and that the two sides might become enmeshed in a tit-for-tat expulsion.

The officials said that Secretary of State George P. Shultz had discussed the matter with officials at the White House and the Justice Department and that an announcement could come as early as today.

``The only question is how many to expel,`` an official said, ``and it will be very difficult for this administration to expel less than five.``

Charles E. Redman, State Department spokesman, said a protest had been lodged in Moscow by Richard E. Combs Jr., the deputy chief of mission.

The Soviet move, announced Sunday, appeared to be in retaliation for the expulsion of 25 members of the Soviet Mission to the United Nations who were identified by the United States as intelligence agents. The five American diplomats ordered out of Moscow were said by the Russians to have engaged in ``impermissible activities,`` the diplomatic formula for spying.